"Because I could not stop for Death—" by Emily Dickinson is a complex poem about human mortality and our journey from birth through life to death. It is highly symbolic and metaphorical, gaining many of its effects by subtle use of imagery and diction.

The first theme is that Death is not something to be feared. Instead, Death is portrayed as "kindly". Even today, but even more so if one considers the state of medicine in the nineteenth century, Death can be considered kind if it provides an escape from a life with terminal cancer or dementia. Next, Dickinson is writing within a Christian context, in which Death is personified as accompanied by Immortality, suggesting that she views death as not just the end of mortal life but beginning of eternal life.

The journey moves past the ordinary elements of daily life, progressing from a school, symbolizing childhood, and fields, symbolizing adulthood and perhaps fertility, to a small house that is actually a grave. The clothing of the woman is that of a bride, suggesting the role of virgins as brides of Christ in Christian theology.